Trick or Treat

We saw some pumpkins painted with faces and the kids wanted to paint theirs... so I got out paints and brushes thinking they'd turn out really cute... but there were no eyes, no ears, no mouths... just lots of paint everywhere and lots of kid creativity, I guess! :) We went to Moms and More Halloween Party. It was fun but there were a ton of kids and a ton of treats and candy so it was a little crazy!Natalie was Minnie Mouse, Blake a regular mouse and Evan was a spider. It was really cute-had little legs coming out but I never got a good picture of it. He got hot so I had to take the gray body part off right after this picture.

Pin the face on the pumpkin.

Evan playing blocks with Dracula (who is 1 day older! :)

Our budding pianist- my mom bought this for Natalie and all three kids have loved it!

Practicing standing (I put him like that...he isn't pulling up yet)

Trick or Treat time!

Brian was gone for the weekend so we went our neighbors, Jake and Cindy. Their son Nathan is Darth Vader.

Cindy stayed home to pass out candy with her younger son Ben so she kept Evan too. The older kids went out to trick or treat.

Poor Blake, it was hard to keep up with the big kids... he made it halfway and then I took him back home while Natalie and Nathan kept going with Jake. It was lots of fun and they got plenty of candy that Brian is enjoying. They forgot about it after the first day which I'm not complaining about! :)

Little Evan at the hospital... we met with an ENT doctor and he recommended PE tubes to help keep his eardrum from rupturing. So I drove about an hour away for him to have them put in. It was a short procedure but he did have to be put under, and wear that little mask to protect him from swine flu while we waited. He did great and all the nurses loved him and hopefully his ears will be a little better from now on.

Hunting Weekend

There was a special weekend where military and seniors and juniors could go doe hunting so we went to Brian's parents house so he could hunt. He didn't get anything this time, although he saw a buck and Natalie a doe right in the backyard! We had a fun weekend and the official hunting season is coming up soon so stay tuned! :)

The new special tradition is to have "colored cheerios" (fruit loops) at Grandma's since we don't normally have them at home. They ate many a bowl on this bench on the porch. I remember eating Corn Bran cereal at my grandma's house growing up--she used to give us sandwich baggies of it to take on the car rides home. I love memories. :)

Oops... falling over!

Aunt Bethany and Evan

The hunters home for lunch of tomato soup and grilled cheese. Another fun tradition.

Brian let Natalie look through the scope.

Pretty hair from Bethany

Ready to go back in the woods. (Brian's dad wasn't hunting--he just kept him company :)

Look at Evan with the basket. :)

McDonald's for dinner (thanks to Grandma's free coupons!)

Blake came out of his room after being put to bed. We told him to go back to bed and we thought he did and then later when we went to bed.... guess what we found? :)

Reading books with GrandmaEvan and Poppa

Fun weekend with family. We're already realizing our time living so close will be up sooner than we think.... gotta make the most of it before we're far away again. :)

Catching Up

We've had a busy past couple of weeks... trying to catch up a little tonight. Enjoy! :) Brian's dad came down for an overnight a couple weekends ago.... they went to the Bloomsburg Fair to check out the monster trucks and of course eat lots of Fair Food!

Maggie (from Life Group) turned 4 so we went to her party.These kids love hanging out together... and the mommies and daddies like each other too! Brian started watching Monday Night Football together with the guys. (A modified version of his cousin PJ's ManTown :) They do NFL Pro Pickem each week... and I'm actually doing it too and I'm only one point behind the leader--I think they all wish I wasn't playing! :)

Fun in the bouncy house

Ryan pushing Natalie on the swing

My mom came to speak at our MOPS group on personalities. She did a great job and everyone wants to know when she's coming back! :)

She was here a couple days... ... out on a walk in our neighborhood.

... to the playground.

... to a local farm for a corn maze, picking pumpkins and apples and buying cider.

My mom has a lot of great pictures but I was holding Evan but I haven't gotten them from her... so these will have to do.

Evan is definitely our most photogenic baby!

We got a huge box of books from my aunt and the kids have just devoured them. They love to read... which I guess they get from both of us... I'm not complaining, it's a great thing!

Evan helping Daddy with his homework.

Family Pizza night watching football.

Brian and I usually have dinner (and it's usually pizza) after the kids go to bed Saturday nights... it's our little mini-date night. But sometimes we do it all together--they thought it was special to eat on the floor... "pic-a-nic! pic-a-nic!" as Blake says. .:)

Riding bikes- I know, we need helmets.

(This was actually the day after all the snow! It melted as quickly as it came!)

Our cute kiddos getting tickled by Daddy. More to come...

SNOW!

Yesterday, it started snowing in the afternoon--only the middle of October and there's already snow! We're still a little awestruck after living in Hawaii for two winters. Snow is still fun for us! :) Dinner time!

It snowed all afternoon and the grass was white when we went to bed But when we woke up today, it was a winter wonderland outside! Wow!Natalie and Blake played outside for awhile this morning although we don't really have all the winter gear that we need yet (weren't quite ready for this so soon!)

Evan wishes he could be outside... actually he's pretty content to scoot around the floor. Still no crawling... he pushes up on all fours, and then sticks his rear in the air like the bear crawl but just stays in that position, somtimes lifting up one leg at a time. I think he's trying to work his core! :)

Natalie's Tooth!

Well, we've had quite the past few months with medical issues... very different from the past 5 years in which we had hardly anything ever! At our church, they flash your family's number up on the screen if they need you during the service. We saw ours so I went downstairs--actually, last Sunday Blake had a major diaper blowout so they'd called me for that so I was wondering what had happened this time. Apparently, Natalie was playing in her class and had fallen and hurt her mouth. Her teacher said she'd bit her lip but when I looked at her, I saw that her tooth was totally jammed back and up into her gum! This picture doesn't really show it very well but when you looked straight at her, you couldn't see that tooth at all, it was way up into the gum. Our pediatric dentist actually goes to our church but he wasn't there this week. We talked with him on the phone that afternoon and then went in Monday morning. As we thought would happen, they had to take out her tooth. She did a great job and everyone said she was a real trooper. They took an x-ray to check, gave her laughing gas, numbed it up, and then pulled it out! She got to keep the tooth (and her little laughing gas mask that she won't let go of). It was pretty rough for a few hours afterwards, especially at the beginning as it was bleeding a lot--the drive home consisted of lots of crying and me continually reaching back to trade out new napkins/pieces of gauze for the blood soaked ones. Yuck. Evan slept through it all but Blake just sat there watching at the whole thing in shock, I think. :) We made a bed on the couch and she watched some movies and took a nap. Daddy came home early from classes--with pudding, applesauce, jello and juice. What a good Daddy. He and Natalie have a really sweet special bond and he was very good at taking care of her. By dinner, she ate a plateful of food and seemed like she was back to her normal self already. The dentist said she'd feel a lot better with the tooth out and I guess he was right. And this is today... she slept all night, woke up bright and cheery and has been bouncing around all morning, eating and drinking just fine! . So now she'll have no tooth for the next couple years in all her pictures but I think she'll handle it just fine. She's still beautiful to us! :)

New York City!

My dad had a hotel room in New York City available so we went to my parent's house last weekend. We had a wonderful time with Grandma and Grandpa and then they watched the kids for us Saturday night so we could go to a Yankees game and spend the night in the City. It was wonderful! (I know it seems like we keep getting lots of overnights away from our kids lately... we normally don't do it that often... although we do love it and think it's important for everyone to do as often as possible. It's so good for your marriage! :) Checking out the new toys and books.

Dinner time

Cheesecake!

Grandpa reading books... don't you love Natalie's pose?

Grandma frequents yard sales to collect toys for her grandkids. She found a puzzle that makes the sound of the instrument when you put the piece in... I think Grandpa was doing the drum here.

And we're off to the city! Thanks so much Mom and Dad!

Lunch at a little deli.

On the way to our hotel we passed the Chrysler Bldg.

Rockefeller Center

Radio City Music Hall

We walked around Central Park a little before the game.

It was neat to see the new stadium, it was very nice. The Yankees were playing the Red Sox... that's quite the rivalry and the fans were definitely excited! (As in, yelling and booing anyone and everything to do with the Red Sox!) Derek Jeter

A-Rod

It was fun to still be at the stadium when the lights came on... although it was really windy and chilly!

7th Inning Stretch- we all sang God Bless America and Take me out the Ball Game.

Love you hubs! :)

After the game, we went to ESPN Zone for dinner... because we wanted to check it out AND we wanted to watch the Penn State game! :) It's a neat place-- more flat screens than I've ever seen in one restaurant... you could literally watch anything you wanted. We had a great time, even then they lost the game.

Walking around Times Square

Our nice hotel room-thanks again Dad!

Back home the next day... watching some football.

And then back to PA... all three kids had colds this week so we laid pretty low... and watched quite a few TV shows!

Picnic lunch outside under a table.

Finger paintingEvan playing puzzles... look at those arms!

Happy Fall everyone!

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Hi friends,
I won't pretend I'm good with computers because I'm certainly not but I just figured out how to add a feature to my blog that I think you might appreciate. Instead of having to constantly check back to see whether I've posted anything or not, you can subscribe to my blog and it will get delivered to your inbox (with the text and pictures exactly as you would see it here-although you'll have to come to the actual site to leave a comment) It's on the right hand side--just enter your email address. You'll have to confirm your subscription and then you'll be all set. And don't worry-you won't be getting a ton of emails... I post no more than once a week--and usually it's every two weeks!
Hopefully this will make me do a better job of posting regularly now that I know people are actually subscribed and waiting! :) 
Let me know if you have any problems.
Thanks, Jen :)